Some 44 Percent of Palestinians in West Bank, Jerusalem Want Hamas To Rule Gaza, New Poll Finds

Only 25.9 percent of Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem support a two-state solution while 44.2 percent said they prefer Hamas to stay in power in Gaza. The fresh survey by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center was conducted in the West Bank and Jerusalem in September, disclosing an overall dissatisfaction with both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.Only 26.4 percent said they preferred the PA to play a role in running Gaza’s affairs, while 18.7 percent said they prefer Gaza to be under international administration. The director of the JMCC, Ghassan Khatib, tells The New York Sun that he isn’t surprised that Hamas is still relatively popular in the West Bank: “People in the West Bank are less affected by the war in Gaza. So the decline in their support to Hamas is slower than what we had in Gaza. Because if we do this poll in Gaza, we will have completely different results.”Some 25.9 percent believe that the war in Gaza will end in Hamas’s favor, down from 67.1 percent in October, 2023. Despite Hamas being more popular than the PA, trust in the terror group dropped to 8.5 percent from 18.7 percent in October 2023, while trust in Fatah rose to 11 percent from 7.1 percent in October 2023. A staggering 68.5 percent said they did not trust any political organization and 62.2 percent are somewhat or very dissatisfied with Mahmoud Abbas’s performance as Palestinian president. “The most striking finding in this survey is that almost two thirds of the public do not trust any of the existing politicians or factions,” Mr. Kahtib said, adding that the reasons for the dissatisfaction are twofold: the failure of Yasser Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas, and Hamas to bring about an end to the Israeli occupation as well as their overall governing performance in both Gaza and the West Bank. The survey also found a sharp rise in those who view peaceful negotiations as the best means of achieving the goals of the Palestinian people, with 44.8 percent in favor compared to 25.7 percent in September 2023. Support for armed resistance dropped to 27.8 percent from 33.7 percent in September 2023. Some 30.1 percent still believe that the October 7 massacre serves Palestinian interests. Support for a two-state solution dropped to 25.9 percent from 32 percent in May 2024, while support for a one-state, binational solution rose to 30.8 percent. Mr. Khatib attributed “realities on the ground” to the continued drop in support for a two-state solution: “It has been dropping gradually in the last 10 years. People in the West Bank see the expansion of settlements, they see the Israeli attitude vis a vis the Palestinian land, and they realize that this is not going to be possible.” When asked if Hamas should turn itself into a political party and presumably give up its military wing, 58.9 percent said that Hamas should “remain the same.” Some 41.1 percent said they expect the war in Gaza will end with a rise in Hamas’s popularity. A random sample of 715 people over the age of 18 were interviewed face-to-face throughout the West Bank including East Jerusalem between September 4 and September 8. The interviews were conducted in randomly selected homes, and the respondents inside each home were also selected randomly according to Kish tables.

Some 44 Percent of Palestinians in West Bank, Jerusalem Want Hamas To Rule Gaza, New Poll Finds

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